DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The field for the 60th running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona is overloaded with racing talent.
More than 230 drivers representing 61 cars – the most for the race since 2014 – are on the entry list.
That group of drivers is chock full of endurance racing experts. Fifty-seven drivers have won at least once in class at the Rolex 24, led by Andy Lally’s five victories. Forty drivers have been winners at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, headed by Nicolas Lapierre’s four triumphs. Toss in four Indianapolis 500 winners and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, and it makes Daytona International Speedway the place to be to open the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.
NBC Sports has complete race coverage beginning on NBC network at 1:30 p.m. ET Saturday. Stints will follow on USA network (4-7 p.m. Saturday; 10 p.m. Saturday-3 a.m. Sunday; 6 a.m.-noon Sunday) before returning to NBC for the dramatic conclusion from noon-2 p.m. Sunday.
Peacock, IMSA’s new livestream home, has flag-to-flag coverage of all 24 hours in the U.S. The international livestream is available in most countries outside the U.S. at IMSA.com/TVLive. IMSA Radio also has complete coverage beginning with the Michelin Countdown to Green at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
For the second straight year, five classes will be racing when the green flag drops at 1:40 p.m. ET Saturday. The starting grid was set by the results of Sunday’s 100-minute qualifying race at Daytona, with the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 winning that race to earn the Motul Pole Award and first starting position. The Wayne Taylor Racing entry, with drivers Filipe Albuquerque, Ricky Taylor, Alexander Rossi and Will Stevens, is aiming to collect the overall and Daytona Prototype international (DPi) class wins a record fourth straight time.
The No. 10 will face stiff competition from the other six DPi entries, including the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R that claimed the 2021 DPi championship on the final lap of the final race last season. Pipo Derani, Tristan Nunez and Mike Conway will share the No. 31 from Action Express Racing.
Action Express also fields the No. 48 Ally Cadillac DPi that finished second in last year’s Rolex 24. Along with NASCAR-turned-IndyCar driver Johnson, the lineup includes two-time Rolex 24 winner Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez, who along with Conway were overall winners last August at Le Mans. Mike Rockenfeller, an overall champion at both the Rolex 24 and Le Mans, rounds out the stout No. 48 lineup.
The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) field again boasts 10 entries, including the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA LMP2 07 that returns its Rolex 24-winning lineup intact with Dwight Merriman, Kyle Tilley, Ryan Dalziel and Paul-Loup Chatin. Four-time Le Mans LMP2 winner Lapierre anchors the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA that won last year’s WeatherTech Championship LMP2 season title and IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup as well as Sunday’s qualifying race. The No. 52’s lineup includes Ben Keating, who’s pulling double duty by also co-driving the No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Cadillac DPi.
Beginning its second season in the WeatherTech Championship, the Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) class has swelled to nine entries. The No 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320 won the Rolex 24 on its way to capturing the season championship and Michelin Endurance Cup title. Gar Robinson is the sole returning driver from the Rolex 24 winner, joined this year by Felipe Fraga, Kay van Berlo and Michael Cooper.
The No. 54 CORE autosport Ligier finished second in the 2021 LMP2 championship with a lineup anchored by past Rolex 24 winners Jon Bennett and Colin Braun. Four-time Rolex 24 winner Joao Barbosa is back in the No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier. Andretti Autosport, with a Rolex 24 entry for the first time, won the LMP3 portion of Sunday’s qualifying race behind full-season drivers Jarett Andretti and Josh Burdon.
The Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class makes its official WeatherTech Championship debut in the Rolex 24. GTD PRO, which aligns with international GT3 specifications, takes over for the GT Le Mans class and is a wide-open affair with eight manufacturers and 13 cars entered. The No. 63 TR3 Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3, whose drivers have combined for five previous Rolex 24 victories, was the class winner in the qualifying race. Corvette Racing has struggled somewhat adapting its GTLM champion cars to the GT3 spec, but never count out three-time Rolex 24 winners Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor, who’ll share the No. 3 Corvette C8.R with Nicky Catsburg.
The Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class figures to be just as unpredictable with 22 entrants and nine manufacturers participating. Mercedes-AMG looks to replicate its 1-2 finish in last year’s Rolex 24 fashioned by the No. 57 Winward Racing and No. 75 Sun Energy 1 GT3s.
The No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, without semi-retired Porsche factory driver Patrick Long, looks to improve on last year’s fourth-place Rolex 24 finish with a lineup that includes two-time Rolex 24 and three-time Le Mans winner Richard Lietz. The No. 44 Magnus Racing driver quartet boasts nine Rolex 24 and two Le Mans victories, though the team has switched to an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 this year. And then there’s Bill Auberlen, IMSA’s all-time winner at the top level (64 wins) who chases his first Rolex 24 victory in 24 years in Turner Motorsport’s new No. 96 BMW M4 GT3.